For Teacher, Poll Shows Schools With No Low Marks

MarÍa Santiago hates to hear the complaint, so often aired during last year's budget battle, that the city's weak school system drives homeowners out of New London.

Santiago, 39 years old and a Spanish teacher at New London High School, frowns when asked if the poor reputation is deserved. She sees her colleagues working after hours and her students making an extra effort on weekends to improve their standardized test scores.

During a recent interview at the school, she was heartened to find that a poll commissioned by The Day unravels the conventional wisdom that residents are fleeing New London because of inferior public education.

Among those who would consider leaving — 12 percent of the residents surveyed — only 7 percent said they would go because of the schools, while 51 percent said they would go because of taxes or the high cost of living.

However, the poll, which surveyed only New London residents, does not measure how the reputation of the schools might affect out-of-towners considering a move to the city.

“New London public schools are not a reason for people to move,” said Santiago, a resident of Viets Street who has lived here for seven years. “Their concern is money, taxes and the cost of living.”

Although she says the schools could use more funding, Santiago sympathizes with retired residents who face rising taxes while their incomes remain stagnant. She says the state should infuse more money into urban schools rather than leave cities like New London, with their higher concentrations of poverty, to subsist on property taxes.

“Certainly our schools need more money, because we have needy children,” she said. “School becomes like a second home for many of them.”

Santiago, a single parent who has one daughter in the dual-language program at Edgerton School and one in a Catholic school, suggests separating the education budget from the general government budget to stop city departments such as police and fire from competing with the schools for funds.

“Right now, we're all in the same potato bag,” she said.

Through CURE, a bilingual group of parents and teachers trying to improve education in the city, Santiago has begun to learn how government and budgets operate in New London. She thinks most residents are unaware of how the political system works.

From what she can see, the current system of government, in which the council selects a new mayor from its ranks every year and a paid city manager helps to run the city, does little to foster continuity of leadership and long-term growth. Let the people choose a mayor, she says, and let that person have a few years to get comfortable.

“If a new mayor is chosen every year, how can that person make changes?” she asked. “He needs time to show how good he is. In four years, you can accomplish a project.”



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